﻿Picking suppliers for your Wedding

Picking who to supply you with the things you need for your wedding is not an easy task! Recommendations come in thick and fast and it’s tough to know who is right for you.

Personally I wanted to use people we knew as much as possible. Not only to support them and their business but also to ensure that we were surrounded by people we had some sort of relationship with and who we trusted rather than random faceless companies.

Flowers

Luckily my friend Emily’s mum is an amazing florist. It’s something she does as a hobby in her garage but god is she amazing! I absolutely LOVED the flowers at our wedding and so many people commented on them. It was also great to be able to contact the actual person doing them and to have a more personable experience. We had an initial meeting about what we wanted and how much we needed. Me and Elaine then set up a secret pinterest board to share ideas with each other (SO handy!).

Elaine came to the wedding venue the morning of the big day and helped set them all up, she then hand delivered the bouquets to the cottage we were staying at AND came back to the venue the next day to collect them all back up (we used a lot of her vases etc).

If you want to check our her work take a look at her instagram here: Florema

Photographer

I really liked having a friend do our photo’s because I instantly felt more relaxed which means we got better snaps. Everyone commented on how great Stacey was and we got all the pictures we wanted in a really reasonable amount of time.

I asked Stacey after how it worked being both a guest and the photographer and she said it was absolutely fine so if that’s a worry of yours maybe discuss it with the person you have in mind before hand so they can decide what works best for them.

Being a friend, Stacey also knew the kind of things I was into (having spoken about it for so long) but we also had a secret pinterest board going on for different poses and looks. Seriously pinterest is your best friend.

If you want to check Stacey our her info is here: Stacey Wills Photography. Unfortunately she no longer does weddings (I was actually her last).

Videographer

I wasn’t sure about having a video at first but in the end it was a no brainer. It seemed like the perfect way to capture our special day forever in a way that a picture just couldn’t.

My nephew George did the video for us and you can check his YouTube channel out here: Departed Media

Stationary

A friend from work put me in touch with her sister who does illustrations and graphic design and I’m so glad she did. I sent her a few ideas, told her what information to include and let her get creative! After the disaster of trying to make my own engagement party invites this was the stress free option I needed. Chloe was amazing and was totally willing to make any changes we wanted although I was happy for her to take the lead on the design.

Working in bars and nightclubs for a number of years you get to know a fair few DJs so I basically put out a facebook status calling all DJs and went with the best offer haha Dave was amazing, you may have heard him at work if you ever visit Barista in Chelmsford. The dance floor was filled all evening and there was a great mix of songs. Again we were in contact before hand to specify the type of music we wanted, confirm our first dance song and give any requests.

I’ve wrote about this before but I found our singer at a local event in Chelmsford and loved her vibe! Just a girl and her guitar putting her twist on well known songs as well as singing ones she wrote herself. As soon as she had stopped playing I asked if she would sing at my wedding and lucky for me she said yes. She came along with her boyfriend and played for a couple of hours, everyone was in awe at how beautiful her voice was and it created exactly the right atmosphere. Cat and her boyfriend even stayed after for some food and a drink which was really lovely.

Wanting a large quantity of food for a large amount of people in a relaxed setting, it only seemed right to have a hog roast. Luckily a guy at works dad could do just that for us. Everyone loved the food and there was more than enough to go around, I only had a small plate and I’m a bit gutted I didn’t eat more (Jon didn’t have any!)

They came in, set up and cleared away so seamlessly, it was perfect.

Cake

My step sisters made our cake as we weren’t having anything fancy. If like me you’re after a naked cake, I’m almost certain you will know someone who can knock one of those up for you. So simple yet so effective.

Drinks

We bought our own drinks for the time between the ceremony and reception but hired the bar at our venue for the evening. If you are able to bring your own drinks, make sure you check if glasses are provided as we had to pay extra for those. I think you can hire them from supermarkets for free but this was just an easier option for us, especially as we were going on holiday the next day.

Snapchat Filter

If I did the day again I’m not sure I would bother with the snapchat filter, mainly because the venue was in the middle of nowhere and not everyone could get the signal for it but it is a nice touch!

I used a girl called Katelyn Davis who I think I found on twitter. She designed the filter for us and explained how to upload it onto snapchat. We paid her for the design then you have to pay snapchat to host the filter so if you can design the filter yourself that will save you some money.

If you have any questions about any of the above then leave me a comment and I will try answer the best I can! Obviously everyone is different in what they are looking for from their wedding but I really do recommend looking close to home for your suppliers, it was lovely to have these people involved in our Wedding and it made it the perfect special day we had hoped for.